Recuperations
by PPP SSC
Summary: After a particularly stressful day, Chief Bogo is in no shape to go to work, which he only realizes because Clawhauser is there to prevent him from powering through it anyway. Based on a prompt from sealbeibei. Rated T for mild language and mild adult themes. Bogo/Clawhauser.


Recuperations

Chief Bogo walked into the room, harried and exhausted from a long day. One of his most successful undercover cops, Officer Wolford, had his position compromised and several hours were spent getting him out of the tough spot. Officers Hopps and Wilde were able to catch a thief and bring him into the ZPD, only for him to break through his cuffs and bolt the second they walked him into the precinct. If Chief Bogo had to pick the most stressful thing that had happened, however, it would have been the fact that Trunkaby, Higgins, and McHorn were having a large uproarious celebration about how they had finished their last case, directly under his office while he was trying to file the last bits of paperwork for it.

Benjamin Clawhauser sat on Bogo's couch with his feet on the coffee table reading a fashion magazine, then looked up and frowned when he saw Bogo's face. "Are you okay, Chief?" he asked.

"Mm…" the Chief responded in a non-committal fashion. "Don't worry about it, kitten. It was just a long day."

"I know, I was there for most of it," he said, "I still can't believe that someone saw through Wolford."

"Yes…" Chief Bogo sighed. "I wish I never had to go to work again…"

Clawhauser waited around while his boyfriend slammed the door to his bedroom, and then walked up and told him through the door, "I think I'm gonna head home now."

"G'night," Bogo said.

Clawhauser picked up his things and headed for the door, but stopped short when he heard muffled groaning through the bedroom door. He looked sympathetically towards it, then looked down at the house key in his paw. He put it back on the table near the door, locked it from the inside, and sat back down. Once he heard the sound of his boyfriend snoring, he quietly walked into the room and switched off his alarm. "Rest well, Chief," he said, smiling, then kissed Bogo on the cheek and made his way back to the couch to sleep.

Clawhauser woke up around 7 and found, unsurprisingly, that Bogo was still sleeping. Clawhauser smiled and called into work, saying that he and Chief Bogo weren't coming in that day, so they would have time to find substitutes. When pressed for the reason, he said, and wholeheartedly meant, that Chief Bogo was very sick and that he would take care of him.

"Alright," he was told, "Tell the Chief to get well soon."

"I will," Clawhauser said.

Chief Bogo woke up at 8 and panicked. "It's 8 o' clock already? Oh no, oh no, oh no, I'm already late! I swear I set my alarm to the goddamn annoying repetitive beeping noise so I wouldn't sleep through it!" He glanced at his alarm clock, and realized its alarm had been turned off. "My alarm!" he exclaimed.

He continued with a string of profanities, rushing to get his clothes put on as he walked toward the door. He stopped in his tracks when he realized that Clawhauser was still in the kitchen, nursing a cup of hot cocoa. "Clawhauser! What are you doing here? You should have been out the door at 7:30… wait… why are you here at all? Didn't you go home last night?"

"I was gonna, but when I heard you groaning through the bedroom door… I thought better of it and spent the night on your couch, Chief," Clawhauser said.

"So why are you so chill about being late to work?" Bogo asked.

"We're not going to work," Clawhauser said.

"What are you talking about, Clawhauser? You and I both know that our jobs are vital and we can't just cut work willy-nilly," Bogo said.

"We're not cutting work, we're taking a sick day," Clawhauser said.

"You and I also both know better than to abuse the sick days for days we're not sick," Bogo said.

"Technically, sick time still applies if I have to take care of a family member who is sick," Clawhauser said.

"But what family member of yours is sick?" Bogo asked.

"Well, I'm sure that long-term-boyfriends would qualify as family members even if we're not married yet, right?" Clawhauser asked.

"I'm not sick," Bogo said.

"Yes you are," Clawhauser said.

"No, no, no, I'm not sick!" Bogo said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go to work." Clawhauser ran in front of the front door and stood there.

"Sweetie," Clawhauser said, "It's okay, I already called in. They're not expecting either of us."

"This just feels… wrong somehow," Bogo said.

"Chief, relax. Getting you to relax was the entire reason I did this in the first place." Clawhauser stood behind Bogo and started to gently massage his shoulders. "It's becoming more common to take mental health days, you know, right?"

"But you've never taken one for yourself," Bogo noted. "Even when you were having crying spells every day after the, ahem, incident."

"It's okay, Chief, you can say it," Clawhauser said, "And to be honest? I didn't need to."

Clawhauser may have considered taking a mental health day for himself in the few weeks after he was moved to records, but every time he got to that point, he was reminded of a good reason to stay at work. Chief Bogo would see him crying and stop by to give him a pastry of some sort and remind him that he was an excellent worker. This kept Clawhauser working through the pain.

"Yes, you did," Bogo said, "That's why I asked you repeatedly if you'd rather go home."

"And the reason I kept saying no was because you were being so nice to me that I'd probably be sadder at home," Clawhauser said. "But there's no dilemma here because we're together now either way."

"Fine," Bogo said, "I guess it wouldn't hurt to get some rest."

"That's the spirit," Clawhauser said, smiling brightly. "Would you prefer oatmeal or whole grain toast for breakfast today?"

"Both," Bogo said, "And a fruit salad."

"Ooh, feeling adventurous this morning, huh?" Clawhauser asked.

"Since I'm not going anywhere anyway, I might as well," Bogo said.

Clawhauser hummed to himself as he prepared breakfast for Chief Bogo, who happily ate it as soon as it was plated. Clawhauser grinned when he noticed a hint of a smirk on Bogo's face.

After they finished breakfast, they decided to watch some TV together. Since it was a weekday, nothing much was on except for idiotic talk shows, glurgey soap operas, shows for hyper-specialized interests that were deemed too boring for prime time, and sitcoms and animations that were really intended for young children. After a few minutes of channel surfing, Bogo groaned, gave up, and put the remote down. He sighed in annoyance.

Clawhauser, upon hearing this, softly growled to himself and ran to get a movie from Bogo's collection. "Too silly… too sappy… too long… too cerebral… wait," Clawhauser said to himself as he moved the boxes from one side of the shelf to the other before stopping and settling on a funny movie they both loved about a straight-laced cop and his sweet but somewhat naïve friend cracking a case that exposed the evils of forced conformity. He smiled.

"Chief?" he asked. "I think I have something better."

"Oh?" Bogo asked. He smiled when he saw the box. "Nice."

They put in the movie and sat together watching it the whole time. Bogo pulled Clawhauser closer to him and smiled at him. It wasn't a huge grin or anything, but it was definitely wider than the smirk from earlier. Clawhauser smiled in return.

In the midafternoon, they played a board game where they were supposed to guess words based on the other's drawings and after one round where Clawhauser tried and failed to guess a particularly unrecognizable plate of spaghetti, Bogo not only grinned but started laughing hysterically. Clawhauser started giggling in response. "S-stop laughing, Chief," he said with a wide grin. "Your laughter is contagious."

Chief Bogo responded by giving Clawhauser a quick smooch on the lips. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too," Clawhauser said, rubbing his head against Bogo's chest and purring softly. "Now, Chief… would you like some time to yourself?"

"Uh…" Bogo said in surprise, "I actually would, if that's possible."

"No problem," Clawhauser said, kissing Bogo's cheek. "I'll go on a little walk. I should be back in an hour or so."

"Have I mentioned I love you?" Bogo asked.

"Yeah, like 30 seconds ago," Clawhauser said.

"…Well, I thought it was important to remind you," Bogo said, smiling widely. Clawhauser even saw a hint of teeth showing through. He said goodbye to Bogo once more, put on a jacket, and walked out the door.

In this brief silence, Chief Bogo contemplated to himself how much unhappier he would be if he had gone to work instead of staying home at Clawhauser's request. It blew his mind how empathetic the cheetah was, not just about things that affected everyone, but about things that affected him, specifically. He said to himself, "You really lucked out, didn't you?" He sighed contentedly when he thought about how much he loved Benjamin Clawhauser. He had saved up a little nest egg and he had caught an ad about how diamonds were going on a reasonable sale—reasonable for diamonds, of course.

While he was thinking about all of this, Clawhauser walked into the room and jolted him out of his daydreams with such suddenness that Bogo physically jumped back. He hadn't been saying anything out loud of course, but he felt as though he might as well have been. "Don't worry, Chief," Clawhauser said, oblivious to Bogo's previous thoughts, "It's just me."

"Oh, Clawhauser!" Bogo said. He paused before saying much more, as he didn't want to accidentally let a proposal slip through his lips before he was prepared. The last thing he wanted was for their engagement to begin on an anti-climax. "Uh…" he said finally, "How was your walk?"

"It was wonderful, Chief," Clawhauser said. "How was your time alone?"

"It was… just exactly what I needed, kitten," Bogo said, hoping he wasn't blushing so hard the tint showed through his hair.

"That's great, Chief," Clawhauser said. "Should I cook or should we get delivery?"

"I can cook," Bogo said. "I'm feeling much better thanks to you. You should relax."

"Aww, Chief, that's sweet of you but I don't need you to cook," Clawhauser said.

"Well since you made breakfast and lunch it's only fair that I make dinner," Bogo said.

"Alright, if you insist," Clawhauser said, kissing Bogo on his cheek. "Don't be shy about asking me for help if you get tired."

"It's okay, kitten," Bogo said. "But thank you."

Bogo prepared a meal of tempura—fish and shrimp for Clawhauser, a motley mix of vegetables for himself—and they enjoyed their dinners together. Chief Bogo saw that Clawhauser was getting very drowsy after dinner. He asked if Clawhauser would rather sleep over or go home for the night. Clawhauser said that Bogo should decide, and after some deliberation, Bogo decided to have Clawhauser stay over.

"Okay," Clawhauser said, climbing into the couch.

"If you'd rather…" Bogo said, "You can sleep in my bed."

Clawhauser gasped in surprise. "I can? For real?" Clawhauser tackle-hugged Bogo.

"Well, I mean, if I'm going to be spending the rest of my life with you, it would be rather silly for me to relegate you to the couch every time, even when you've gone above and beyond to help me out all day," Bogo said.

"What did you just say?" Clawhauser asked in the same vulnerable tone he used when he discovered Bogo's love of Gazelle, when Bogo caught his little slip-up and winced.

"Well, I… um… look, it's not set in stone or anything… but I certainly wouldn't count it out, kitten," Bogo said.

Clawhauser nodded, unsure whether to feel elated or disappointed at this development. That night, Bogo and Clawhauser cuddled up in bed, and it was obvious to Bogo that Clawhauser was happy about it as his engine hadn't stopped humming most of the night. Bogo meanwhile, was very happy to have a soft mammal to cuddle as he slept. Both of them woke up at 7 am, ready to face the new work day.

"Clawhauser?" Bogo asked when he glanced at the alarm, "Did you reset the alarm?"

"No!" he said, "I forgot to entirely."

"You did?" Bogo asked. He laughed. "I guess that we got all the rest we needed, then."

"I guess so," Clawhauser said, smiling at Bogo.

"Benjamin Clawhauser, I swear, you are an angel on earth," Bogo said. Clawhauser giggled bashfully.

When Bogo walked into work that day, he ran into Hopps. "Hey, Chief," Hopps asked. "Are you feeling better today?"

"Much better, thanks to a certain cheetah," Bogo said. He looked over to Clawhauser's desk and smiled at him.

Clawhauser smiled back and Bogo thought to himself, _Yep. Definitely gonna pop the question soon._


End file.
